Hubertus Christian de Blanck Valet

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The pianist, composer, and pedagogue Hubert de Blanck (Hubertus Christian de Blanck Valet), who developed a considerable part of his professional work in Cuba, where he would achieve our nationality, was born in the Dutch city of Utrecht.

Son of Reine Valet Sauvlet, singer, and Willem de Blanck Kantz, violinist, Hubert received his first music lessons from his father. When his parent deemed that his son's studies should be directed in an academic institution, he sent him to the Conservatory of Liege, one of the most famous in Belgium, where the nine-year-old boy would begin his studies of solfege and piano under the direction of professors Dupuy and Le Den.

Two years later he would receive the second prize in piano there, for his performance of the Concerto in E minor by Hummell, a fact that marked the beginning of his rising career as a pianist, composer, and orchestra conductor.

After appreciating the pianistic virtuosity of the young Dutchman, in 1869 the King of Belgium subsidized his higher music studies at the Cologne Conservatory, which he reached three years later. At this educational center he studied harmony and composition and dedicated nearly ten hours daily to piano studies.

Hired by an uncle of his, the entrepreneur Hubert Sauvlet, De Blanck undertook an artistic tour through cities in Russia, where he formally debuted as a pianist in Saint Petersburg.

The following year, he was appointed orchestra conductor of the El Dorado theater in Warsaw, a responsibility he performed until 1875 before returning to his paternal home in Cologne.

Shortly thereafter he would meet in that city the Brazilian Eugen Maurice Dangremont, who, despite being only eleven years old, was already considered a violin genius. Both joined together to perform in Germany and Denmark and, once those performances were completed, they embarked for Brazil in 1880. They were greatly applauded when presenting their talents before the court of Emperor Pedro II and, subsequently, would give concerts in Buenos Aires.

Later they returned to Europe and on January 20, 1881 they performed at an evening organized in the Royal Palace of Germany by Emperor Wilhelm I, who, captivated by the art of Hubert de Blanck, gave him a valuable ruby set in gold.

The young musician returned to Argentina. From there he went to New York in order to give a series of concerts and won, through a competitive examination, the vacant position left at the College of Music of that city by the pianist and master of Hungarian origin Rafael Jossefy.

During a vacation period, accompanied by his first wife Ana G. Menocal, in 1882 he traveled to Cuba for the first time, an occasion on which he offered concerts that reaffirmed his prestige in the Caribbean island.

He returned to New York to teach his course and give various recitals over a period of several months, and in 1883 he decided to establish his residence in Havana with the marked interest of founding in the largest of the Antilles, two years later, the first Conservatory of Music and Declamation.

One of the former students of the school, the lawyer, composer, and musicologist Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, expressed his opinion in these terms regarding his former professor: Blanck, born in Utrecht, the Dutch city of treaties, brought to our Island the contribution of his knowledge, his refined art, and his good taste. He intervened effectively at that moment in our musical status, and displaced, with conscious and elevated work, that harmful tendency, which had been wrongly fruitful among us, pointing out as the zenith, toward which pianists already established and those hoping to be should aim, classicism, the works of the great precursors of the art of sounds, without this orientation being directed starting from the study and knowledge of the so-called romantics of yesteryear, who truly were, and, in the majority of cases, without ceasing to be classical in essence.

Located on Paseo del Prado, number 100, on October 1, 1885 Hubert de Blanck created the Conservatory of Music and Declamation, amid the warmest reception from Havana's society and press. Public opinion showed its sympathies toward the new institution, heir to the educational work of Manuel Saumell, Fernando Arizti, Pablo Desvernine, Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, and other pedagogues.

The Provincial Board, the Havana City Council, and the Economic Society of Friends of the Country contributed to the maintenance of the important educational center.

In its beginnings, the faculty of professors was made up of musicians Antonio Fernández (flute), Anselmo López and Tomás de la Rosa (violin), Tomás Ruiz (elementary and advanced solfege), José Prudencio Mungol (guitar), Vicente Morán (elementary harmony), and Mariano Cuyero (advanced harmony). De Blanck was the professor of composition and piano, a specialty he shared with Ernesto Edelmann, Aurelio Sariol, Juan Miguel Joval, and Pablo Canua.

Matters of interest at the Conservatory were the academic competitions in piano, violin, and solfege, the first to be held in our country in the music specialty, whose inaugural edition took place on August 14, 1886 in the halls of the Provincial Board. These competitions took place year after year at the Havana City Hall, first, and later at the Conservatory's own headquarters after its move to Galiano Street before a jury made up of prestigious personalities.

Already in 1894 the Conservatory of Music and Declamation had an enrollment of two hundred students of both sexes. In a short period of time De Blanck, according to Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, knew how to discover the talent of his best students and forge and direct them within the purest doctrines of Art.

Always attentive to the most modern methods of musical pedagogy, Hubert de Blanck became an innovator in Cuba in this regard. While forming high-quality concertistas, he established the first orchestra of the musical center founded by him, which could even present itself in small formats, and with his students he created choirs that exceeded one hundred voices.

Furthermore, so that students would achieve a good level of information he founded the magazine La propaganda musical, which was published between 1886 and 1888; he sponsored recitals by recognized groups and figures of the arts in conservatory halls, as well as lectures, generally on the history of music and illustrious composers.

When commenting on the pedagogical work of Hubert de Blanck, the composer and orchestra conductor Gonzalo Roig asserted: Blanck's great task in the field of musical instruction was to modernize and give living meaning to a learning that until then proceeded according to the personal assessments of each teacher but lacked organization and cohesion. With him, for the first time, there was talk of courses of study and piano technique in the European style.

In that same year of 1886 the master was imprisoned by the colonial government for his participation in the Revolutionary Board of Havana. He was deported from Cuba and went to New York, where he subsisted by giving private lessons and as an accompanist pianist.

From the first months of his arrival in New York he became connected with the group of Cuban artists who were raising funds for their country's independence cause, among whom were sopranos Chalía Herrera and Ana Aguado, pianist and professor Emilio Agramonte, and the notable tenor Emilio Gogorza. From that time is his well-known work Paraphrase, for piano, based on the Cuban National Anthem, which premiered at one of the patriotic musical evenings organized by the group.

After the independence war ended, Hubert de Blanck returned to Havana and reorganized his musical institution, this time on Galiano Street, corner of Dragones, with the name National Conservatory of Music. There he inaugurated the Espadero Hall, considered for many years as one of the country's most important concert venues.

In 1903 Master De Blanck officially adopted Cuban citizenship. The conservatory moved again, seeking larger facilities, to Galiano Street No. 47, upstairs, between Concordia and Virtudes. By those days it had an enrollment of 680 students, and a large number of academies incorporated into its curriculum plans throughout the Island.

The writer and musicologist Alejo Carpentier, who around 1947 served as professor of History of Music at the Conservatory, would point out that at that center musical instruction was taught rigorously, thanks to the participation of the best teachers.

In the extensive catalog of works by Hubert de Blanck – in addition to his pedagogical texts, there appear no fewer than thirty-five works dedicated to piano; also for voice and piano; violin and piano; symphonic orchestra and band, chamber music, and lyric theater.

After receiving several honorary recognitions from prestigious Cuban institutions, the master died in Havana in 1932.

After his death, the National Conservatory of Music of Havana continued under the care of his widow, Pilar Martín, along with his daughters Margot and Olga, – also recognized performers and pedagogues – who in 1947 inaugurated a new building for the school in El Vedado in Havana, where today stands the theater hall that bears the name of the Dutch musician. There they placed a bust erected in his honor – by Cuban sculptor Juan J. Sicre – who were his students in 1928.

Much time later, in 1959, and when the Consultative Board for the Teaching of Music was constituted with the task of studying, reviewing, and creating new plans and programs for that discipline, the National Conservatory of Music of Havana was integrated into the system of art institutions and schools.

Until then, the certificates, grades, and diplomas issued by the Conservatory proudly retained the printed motto:
"The first established in Cuba. Founded in 1885 by Hubert de Blanck"

His daughter, the notable composer Olga de Blanck Martín, made a donation to the Museum of Cuban Music, between 1962 and 1985, the year in which the centennial of the founding of the first De Blanck school was commemorated – of valuable material and documentary funds of the conservatory that her father generously founded.

One of his most important compositions is the Opera Patria (with libretto by Ramón Espinosa de los Monteros), the first to address the theme of the Cuban independence struggle. The premiere of its second act and the performance of its overture in 1899 at the Tacón theater is known, directed by the author and performed by soprano Chalía Herrera and Italian tenor Michele Sigaldi.

The opera was presented in full at the Payret theater in 1906, and was revived on May 20, 1922 at the Martí theater. It would not return to the stage until 1979, when it was presented at the Gran Teatro de La Habana. The main roles were then performed by Lucy Provedo, Lidia Valdés, Venchy Siromájova (sopranos), Mario Travieso, Jacinto Zerquera, Orestes Lois (tenors), and Ángel Menéndez and Romano Splinter (baritones).

Catalog of Works for Piano
Hubert de Blanck left a copious catalog of works for piano, among which stand out Capricho cubano, Danza de las brujas, Bolero in D minor, Danza cubana, Souvenir de La Habana, Danse espagnole, and the album Six Dances for Piano.

From his chamber music stands out the Trio, for violin, cello, and piano, and his Quintet, for two violins, viola, cello, and piano.

Among his most significant lieder are La danza tropical, La huérfana, Las dos rosas, La fuga de la tórtola (with verses by Juan Clemente Zenea), Desde la tarde en que te vi, and Las perlas.

Production for Symphonic Orchestra
Among his production for symphonic orchestra, Capricho cubano, Symphonic Suite, Symphonic Poem, and March and Funeral Chant stand out.

In his style, De Blanck was a post-Romantic. He cultivated all genres with full stylistic mastery and care of form, and maintained a melody of lyrical character, fluid and inspired, of great musical rigor.